She attended the University of Texas for only one year, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta,[5] before moving to New York City to study modern dance under Hanya Holm.

She found early success with her 1943 solo dance The Desperate Heart, which incorporated the poem of the same name by John Malcolm Brinnin.

Louis Horst described The Desperate Heart as "the finest solo work in the entire modern dance repertory of this decade".

[2] Her production of Virginia Sampler, as performed by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, was called "an interesting and unsuccessful experiment".

Doris Hering of Dance Magazine wrote, "Only an artist with the deepest feeling for movement and drama could have worked the wonders Miss Bettis did with the material at hand."

"[9] Bettis found success in 1952 when she choreographed a ballet based on the Tennessee Williams play, A Streetcar Named Desire.